Knowing women : same-sex intimacy, gender, and identity in postcolonial Ghana / Serena Owusua Dankwa, Universität Bern, Switzerland .

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dankwa, Serena Owusua, 1975- author.

Series:

African identities: past and present

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lesbianism--Ghana--History.

Lesbianism.

Lesbians--Ghana--Social life and customs.

Lesbians.

Interpersonal relations--Ghana.

Interpersonal relations.

Gender identity--Ghana.

Gender identity.

Lesbians--Social life and customs.

Ghana.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 318 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

"Knowing Women is an ethnography on friendship, same-sex desire, and intimacy among urban, working-class women in southern Ghana who engage in erotic relationships with each other. The intersectional analysis of these women's life narratives and world views situates them in relation to contemporary political, economic, and social developments affecting Ghana and other African societies in a postcolonial world. Prominent among these are the anti-gay policies and rhetoric and the pro-gay activism of local and international LGBTIQ advocacy organizations. Paying close attention to the women's own practices of self-reference, S. O. Dankwa refers to them as "knowing women" in a way that both distinguishes them from, and relates them to such categories as lesbian or supi a Ghanaian term for female friend(ship). In so doing it critically refutes both the anti-gay claim that homosexuality is "un-African" and the universalizing claim that queer identity categories exist in and can be translated between all languages and cultures. The book contributes to the burgeoning field of global queer studies in which both women and Africa have been largely underrepresented. In addition to engaging feminist, queer, Africanist and postcolonial theories of gender and sexuality, it responds to anthropological theories of kinship and gift-exchange"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Tacit Erotic Intimacies and the Culture of Indirection

2. Supi, Secrecy, and the Gift of Knowing

3. "The One Who First Says `I Love you'": baa Barima, Gender, and Erotic Subjectivity

4. Sugar Motherhood and the Collectivization of Love

5. "Doing Everything Together": Siblinghood, Lovership, Incest, Family.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 280-302) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Dankwa, Serena Owusua, 1975- Knowing women.

ISBN:

9781108495905

1108495907

9781108811026

1108811027

OCLC:

1158507304